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Michael Apted's '56 Up' Documentary Hitting Theaters in January 2013

by Ben Pearson
October 3, 2012
Source: Variety

Since 2002, Richard Linklater has been filming a movie called Boyhood starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as parents who raise a child from first grade until he graduates high school. They cast a real first grader at the time and have come back every year to film a bit more as he's grown, with the final film to be released sometime in 2014 or 2015. But for a much longer period of time director Michael Apted has been working on the Up series of films, interviewing the same fourteen children every seven years since 1964. Variety reports that Apted's latest entry, 56 Up, has secured a theatrical release in New York. More below!

56 Up is slated to play at the IFC Center starting on January 4th in NYC, and for those who have the chance, this should be a fascinating thing to play out on the big screen. It would be really cool if IFC was able to do a marathon of the previous entries leading up to the premiere of the newest one, similar to what Marvel did with their Phase One movies leading up to The Avengers. The dedication and patience it takes to stick with these same subjects over the course of almost fifty years is incredibly impressive, and watching real people's lives unfold like that on screen is arguably more compelling than most big budget blockbusters. We'll keep an eye out for a more expanded release as the new year approaches. Thoughts?

Filed under Development, Movie News

From around the web:

http://thesolarsentinel.blogspot.com/ Alan Trehern

I wish I had two more hands, so I could give this movie 4 thumbs down!
- GreatreviewAlan
  
  great review Alan...could you be less specific? This is actually a fascinating series. Worth the time spent. "Boyhood" sounds interesting as well.
- Mike
  
  Alan's comment currently has four votes down. Hopefully everyone will have the good sense to leave it at that amusingly appropriate count.
Worth watching

I have followed these since the first one, and I grew up in England in the 60s and 70s so this really resonates with me. Try and get the series on video, it really is a fantastic achievement and a fascinating look at the lives of these people.
Mr. Sal

I love the 7 Up movies. It's like watching these people's lives with a time machine. A brilliant longitudinal documentary series!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Betzen/543333746 Bill Betzen

"56 Up" sounds something like what several thousand Dallas ISD students are now waiting for. The difference is that our project now involves hundreds of students in each of 5 public schools every year. In 2005 the first 300+ 8th graders at Quintanilla Middle School wrote letters to themselves about their dreams and plans for what they hope to be doing in 10 years. Every year since then the 8th grade classes at Quintanilla have added their own similar letters to themselves to the hundreds already in a large vault bolted to the floor in the Quintanilla Lobby. In recent years many parents have joined in by writing their own letters to their child about their dreams for them. That priceless parental letter joins the student's letter inside the sealed self-addressed envelope for each student awaiting their 10-year 8th grade reunion. Since 2005 four more DISD schools have started their own similar school archive projects to join in the process of focusing on the future. The main target high school has already almost doubled their graduation rate! The students know they will be asked at their 10 year reunion to speak with the current students back at their old school. They will be asked to give their recommendations for success having lived the first decade after leaving that school. Imagine the priceless statements they will be able to make that nobody else could make! Our first reunion will be in two years, in November of 2014. It will begin an annual event for Quintanilla as we work to focus our students on the hard study and education needed to succeed in today's world. It is part of a change in school culture to reinforce relationships, study, and emphasize a healthy focus on history, family, and the future: http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/2012/04/changing-disd-culture-three-steps.html. "56 Up" has a valuable message that every middle school student needs to begin to contemplate in their own lives. A simple project capturing the passage of time could change school culture in the US.
Nathan Manro

This is without question the best series ever made--each subsequent film the best film ever made. But what's the deal with holding back release dates for the U.S. (not NYC)?